


The Case of the Unlocked Cage

by MoonGalleon22



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Blood and Injury, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Multi, Post-Relationship, Pre-Relationship, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-11 20:21:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2081838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonGalleon22/pseuds/MoonGalleon22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A renown detective turns up dead, despite all his natural talent, and it's up to his cousin to avenge his murder. Hinata has the inner strength, resources, and determination to catch Neji's killer, with talented back-up to boot, but her search quickly becomes dangerous as she suspects the cities most powerful and ruthless mobsters and mages - can she navigate the same tangled webs that caught her cousin, or will unexpected reunions lead to her downfall?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Catching Up

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired the other day to write a noir/detective AU fic for Naruto, so I set to planning it - while it's gone through lots of different ideas, the core basis hasn't changed, and I'm loving what I have so far. It ended up being an urban fantasy story as well (fantastic noir?) because I didn't want them to be ninjas, but there were elements of the plot that needed a supernatural element in there for it to work - it was originally planned as a cyberpunk story, with the ninja abilities being based in advanced technology, but again, there were plot elements that stopped making sense, and I didn't want the technology to overtake the rest of the story. It feels like it fits, as a fantasy - the original Naruto one-shot was about magic too, so it kind of feels like I'm referencing what could have been.
> 
> This is still a work in progress, so I do apologise if it takes me a while to update, and it's largely unbetaed. I'm sorry if it's too easy to tell who the murderer is - even if you guess early on, I hope the story entertains you anyway.
> 
> The Major Character Death warning is because the victim is a major character, so apologies for that.

The office was roomy and clean, not a thing out of place – the man at the desk was hidden in shadow, the full moon at his back. The detective gained some degree of comfort from that; if his magic were needed, it would be at its strongest now. But then, he found it hard to believe that the man at the desk hadn’t prepared for that.

The man slowly read the documents before him, taking his time. He didn’t look up at all when he spoke.

“You are aware of what we could do to you? Or to the girl – I hear she’s gaining quite the reputation of her own. Might be beneficial for me to nip that in the bud, as it were.” He remained calm and measured, two things that the detective certainly wasn’t at that moment.

“You won’t hurt her. If you even try, then I will be even more determined to have your agency burnt to the ground, do you hear me? You’re within my reach and scope, and I won’t rest until you’re finished,” the detective spat out, fury rippling through his blood. The man sitting at the desk shook his head, as if he’d come to a sad conclusion.

“Pity, that. I’d been hoping that this could have been resolved another way…then again, I don’t suppose I’m the only person who’s told you that recently, am I? So this is a gift, from me to you…”

Even if the detective had seen it coming, there was little he could have done to prevent it, and his struggle was short and futile. He remained suspended, not even able to fall to the floor, and the blood gushed from his throat in torrents. Energy, blood, his very life itself, leaked from his mouth and the newly-made puncture wounds.

“Look at the bright side, detective: if I hadn’t killed you, then your death would have come soon enough, and they wouldn’t have been so merciful. Be glad it wasn’t personal.”

The detective thought back over the past few days (the past few years, all coming together and catching up to him at once), and he couldn’t decide if this was his fate, or if this were merely the result of his choices. Perhaps, he thought, it was both. I chose this death, to protect her. He never lost the belief that his death would be avenged at the very least, that it would create the change he had fought for. The thought failed to make it easier for him.

“Hinata,” he found himself saying, the name mutilated by the blood in his mouth. “Hinata…I’m sorry…” The detective’s forehead burnt a brilliant green, and all the lights went out.


	2. Bad Omens

The Hidden Village was the kind of place where murders were hardly newsworthy, unless they were committed with magic. Then people started to worry.

Every human in the world had magic, of course, but The Hidden Village had somehow become a busy, multicultural hub for it, the air sharp with power and untold happenings. It had been a village that expanded into a small town, and being engulfed by a rapidly-expanding city hadn’t changed the enclosed, shadowed nature of it. The rest of the city knew to avoid crossing the borders if they could.

It was a town that distinguished itself with bloodshed, secret histories, and a population that knew they were being played, though largely ignorant of the forces that played them. Those who knew never told, if they even could. Noir Fantastic, concrete, spilled mana and graffiti that only few could see.

People there were rarely taught how to master their magic, specific or weak as magic often is, but the people of this town knew that secrets were shared with the strongest, tears and sweat needing to blend with the blood in order to get ahead. Some of the best mages in the world came from this town, and they largely spent their days as law enforcement or common thugs. Any suggestion that they squandered their gifts would be met with a stern glare, perhaps an amused smile. Here, only the best is needed. Demons wore human skin so often that people didn’t bother grabbing their torches and pitchforks to do something about it – demons had influence and power and most people merely whispered curses behind their backs. The status quo had been upset so many times there that no one was surprised when it would change again. The key was getting through these times alive and well.

Even the best could fail in the town where anything was possible.

* * *

In a world of magic and mischief, Rock Lee felt it was merely pragmatic to believe in things like omens and bad luck, and waking up that morning, his left side stiff and screaming from pain (moreso than usual, so much more than usual), he couldn’t help but shiver from sudden worry. He heard the knock on the door (and of course he’d overslept on such an important day, of course he’d be late, his day was going so well) and attempted to sit up, feeling the strain and pull in his muscles and bones. He must have taken a while to do it because the front door opened anyway, Tenten’s arm snaking in to wave something at him, and thank the gods _she had coffee_.

“Don’t suppose I can come in, can I?” she called out, poking her head round the door. She winced at the sight of him, and he managed a smile.

“Please do. I do not think I have ever been more pleased to see you, Tenten,” he replied as she strode through his apartment.

“Bad morning?” She sat on the edge of corner of his bed, her eyebrows furrowed. The pain made even small gestures like nodding hurt, but he did it all the same.

“It has not been this bad in a long time. I thought I was alright to go back on the force, but…” he muttered, hissing when she lifted his hand. She pulled and pushed at his limbs with practiced fluidity, aiming to bring some motion to the leaden joints if not a relief from the pain. “It is not a convenient morning for this, let me just say.”

“You’ll get there eventually, Lee. Even if you still get days like this, I’d still say you’re well enough to go back – and if you don’t think you are, then you need to take things slowly until you get there, okay?” she recited. He’d heard it said almost verbatim before, but on days like this, he didn’t feel up to questioning her too hard. “What do you mean, not a convenient morning? You got plans?” she added, conversationally, as she bent his leg in a way that he really didn’t appreciate. He grit his teeth, breath slow, and his response was a long time in coming.

“Yes. I was going to meet with Neji in…” He looked at the clock, a sinking feeling in his gut. “…an hour. He said he was onto something interesting, and would give me the scoop on it.”

“Oh yeah? I wonder if it has to do with…whatever it is he’s been so secretive about lately? I mean, we’re meant to be partners, but he’s been juggling a lot of things that he’s been telling me nothing about…” she pondered. She shrugged, and lightly smacked his shoulder to indicate she was done. “It’d better be a good scoop.”

“He assures me that it is – the best of my career, even.” Lee curled his fingers into a fist repeatedly – the pain was still there, somewhere deeper than his muscles and skin, but it was tolerable now, and the stiffness had largely passed. “…I have a bad feeling about this. Like something terrible will come to pass, or has already and I just do not know it yet.”

“Oh come off it, Lee. Sure, it’s a little shady, but he promised you he’d be there, right?” She handed him his coffee, and he let the heat permeate through. “And it’s important, so everything will go well, okay?”

“Yes, but…my body…”

“Lee, it was raining on and off last night and early this morning. It’s probably just the change in atmospheric pressure. Okay?”

“…Bad weather can be an omen sometimes, too…” he murmured. Tenten sighed and shook her head.

“Lee, omens aren’t a thing. You’re just being silly, and everything will be fine.” His face still looked grave and severe, her cynicism doing nothing to cheer him up. She shrugged, putting on a smile.

“Alright – well, if it goes badly, you can meet me for lunch to cry on my shoulder, and if it goes well, then you can meet me for lunch and spill the beans.” She patted his head, her hand stroking through his hair as he gulped down his coffee, lingering just a moment longer than was necessary. The coffee was exactly how he liked it, bitter and strong, still piping hot. She always remembered his coffee orders to the letter, delivered to his house every morning at 8am on the dot, and his heart was always warmed by it. It felt good, having such a wonderful friend.

“I would love to take you up on that, Tenten, but I unfortunately have other plans,” he said, a smile that wasn’t forced finally making its way onto his face. “If I have to cry, then it will not be on your shoulder.”

“Who’s shoulder is that, then? Is it Hinata? I mean, I always kind of figured that Neji would try and set you two up at some point…” she whispered, like a secret.

“No, no, it is not her, although I do not think you are wrong in that assessment. I do not think you know him?”

“Ooh, a ‘him’? First you’re going out to note down all of Neji’s secrets, and then you’re off dating mystery men. Truly, you lead a life of intrigue and suspense,” she joked, before smiling softly. “Seriously though, have you ever dated a guy before? I mean, I knew you liked guys as well, but I wasn’t sure if you’d dated any. Are you okay?”

He nodded, his cheeks a dark pink. “I think I am, yes. It is not as if that was due to fear, or a lack of pride – I have no fear of rebuke. Besides, it is more of a ‘getting to know you’ kind of date. He seems nice enough, but so far I am not sure.”

Her hand drifted down his neck, hesitating before patting his shoulder. “Well, he isn’t going to want to get to know you if you turn up naked and filthy, is he? Come on, I’ll be here if you need me.”

By the time he’d gotten himself ready to face the day, the meeting was five minutes away and Tenten was shuffling him out of the door and towards her car with little discussion outside of “If you go without your cane today then Neji won’t be seeing you at all. Just test me.” He sighed, and went back to get it – he rarely needed it, but today was one of those days where it might be necessary to have. She knew him too well to let him slip out without it.

Tenten always made it a habit to drive slow when she had Lee in the car, going through the short-cuts to make up for time, and they talked so much that Lee almost shook off that persistent unease. Almost.

“Who’re you calling? Neji?” Tenten asked, seeing Lee fiddle with his phone out of the corner of her eye.

“Just making sure that he got to our meeting spot on time,” he said, his smile nervous. More like if Neji got to the meeting spot at all, if the ringing of the phone would be answered by his most likely tired or irritable voice. A voice stated Neji’s unavailability, and by the fifth time it happened, Lee couldn’t keep the panic off his face.

“…Lee, on my phone, I have an app that lets me track his phone. We’d agreed on it, if a case called for us to be separated. You can use that to make sure where he is, okay?” Tenten said, concern dripping from her voice. “I’m sure he just…can’t hear his ringtone. Yeah.”

Lee looked through Tenten’s phone, stumbling with his left hand, and his mounting unease reached a tipping point when Neji’s phone was traced to a specific alleyway on the pier. He stumbled out of the car, expecting to see him standing proudly before them, his heart sinking when he wasn’t. He only had to briefly look over the are to see it – a pale hand raised, almost like it were waving, out of the tip before them.

“Tenten…I am not seeing things, am I?” he asked her, rooted to the spot.

Lee didn’t even need to see the rest of the body, those hands overwhelmingly familiar even at a distance. Those hands had defeated him in combat too many times for him to mistake them.

“What do you mean, seeing things? Lee…?” she asked, poking her head out of the car window. She saw it too, and fell quiet. He went back in the car, the two of them sitting in silence for several long moments.

“…So…what was that you were saying about bad omens?” he asked quietly, his voice breaking down into a waterlogged mess.

He ended up crying on her shoulder after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much as I like Neji's character, I keep writing him as being super dead or otherwise having him as a posthumous character, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe I'm more pissed off about that than I think, or something. 
> 
> This chapter ended up being uncomfortably long, so I'm breaking it in two. Rarely if ever have I had an introductory part of the story be 4000 words, so I think I'm in for the long haul with this one now. All of it's unbetaed, so if I edit anything, then you'll know why, and I apologise in advance. 
> 
> This whole segment was originally done in narration, but it was boring and had less information than I wanted, so I added Tenten to the scene and turned it into a conversation. I guess it's important to learn as you go.


	3. Eyes Just Scratch the Surface

A ringing phone, blinking eyes awake. Orders, directions, slowly waking up. Hinata Hyuuga had overslept today as well.

She went through her morning routine swiftly and efficiently, with minimal make-up (Kiba always told her that she’d look weird with a full face of make-up on, but it wasn’t as if she wore it for his sake anyway) and hair unstyled. Her phone went off again, Shino asking her for a lift to the crime scene, and the second she’d finished drinking her coffee she was out the door.

He was waiting for her when she pulled up outside his house, and she couldn’t see his face, but she was willing to bet money that he was glaring at her.

“You’re five minutes late, Hinata. You overslept.”

“I appreciate the concern, Shino, but let’s just get to the scene, shall we?” she muttered, still tired.

“Fine. I’ll get you coffee on the way?”

“Yes please.”

It was after the brief stop for coffee that Shino brought up the proposition, and Hinata had to wonder how long he’d been planning this talk for. Crafty bastard had waited until she was woken up by caffeine and unable to escape him, and if she weren’t so sympathetic towards him, she’d have been furious. As it was, she sat quietly and listened as Shino kept talking – it was the most she remembered him saying at once for a long while, and it was a lot to take in.

“I know that Kiba’s talked to you about this already, but we both know he’s downplaying it. Now why is that? He doesn’t want to rush you into making a decision that you aren’t comfortable with.” He was sitting shotgun to her, his face unreadable behind the glasses and coat. He should have been nervous, yet his voice was calm. “I agree with him that we don’t want to pressure you, but I would like you to take his offer seriously, if you weren’t already.”

Her hands gripped the wheel, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. Her eyes stayed on the road. “Shino, I appreciate that, I do. Still, it’s…even put casually, it’s a big thing to consider. I’m not sure dating one of you would be a good idea – both of you at once, though? When I’ve never dated more than one person at once before?”

“I understand that, yes. Just…think it over, please?” he responded, letting out a sigh, and maybe the coffee hadn’t been enough, but weariness seeped into her bones and settled.

That feeling wouldn’t leave her for the rest of the day, she would find, as Kiba accosted her as she left her car, saying “So, you, um…you might want to avoid this one, Hinata. Just sayin’.”

“Kiba, I know it’s easy to think of me as some kind of fragile flower, but honestly, you of all people should know better,” she snapped, and it hit her that he really didn’t know better. He wouldn’t have pulled his punches with the dating thing if he had. “How long have I been doing this job?” she asked, Kiba’s face turning into a grimace. She hadn’t broken her stride for anything, and she nodded politely when Kiba lifted the yellow tape for her.

“Nah, Hinata, it ain’t like that. I meant…I wouldn’t be warning you like that over nothing, you know? You’re a tough nut, but this…” he explained, stopping when she held up her hand. She could see the body, and Kiba didn’t need to explain anything more.

The body was stuffed into the garbage, arms and legs snow white against the black bags and poking out at unnatural angles. The body was clothed, the gaping holes in the torso filled with shadow, the entire body framed by long, beautiful raven hair. Black, white, and red, blood forming an apron on the body, long-dried and crinkling the material. The eyes were half-shut, silver and made blind by death, when in life they had seen everything. The curse seal on his forehead was gone, creating a void as obvious as the stab wounds.

Anger quickly overtook Hinata’s shock, the injustice searing through her head. This was no way for a Hyuuga to die.

“Oh, Neji. What happened to you?” she heard herself say. The only answer she received was a gentle hand on her shoulder. No one moved for what felt like several minutes, time condensing around that moment of newly discovered grief; Hinata took a deep breath, steeled herself, and time resumed around them.

“Alright then. Kiba, explain the case to me as if this weren’t personal, and I will take it from there,” she said. Contained, if nothing else. Kiba worried his lip between his teeth, before sighing and putting his game-face on.

“…Okay, if you insist. The victim, as you’ve probably guessed, is currently identified as Neji Hyuuga. The cause of death appears to be from multiple stab wounds, but we can’t say for certain until after the autopsy – judging from the size of the holes, it’s pretty safe to say that the wounds weren’t inflicted by a conventional weapon. That’s all we got so far.”

Hinata cast her eyes briefly across the body (the body, not Neji, and perhaps she could stave off the sorrow by pretending that this wasn’t him somehow), to the surrounding area, the oddness of it leaping up at her. “Well, you don’t need the All-Seeing Eye to notice that this can’t be the crime scene. There isn’t any blood here that isn’t on the body, and there’s no sign of a struggle here. So…so he was killed elsewhere and dumped, like…”

Like garbage, but she couldn’t bear to finish the thought. God, the person who did this deserved the worst kind of retribution. “…So, this isn’t our crime scene. Who found the body?” she asked, deliberately ignoring how Kiba’s face crumpled with sympathy.

“The worst person, aside from you. From what we could gather, Neji had planned a meeting with Rock Lee this morning, and Tenten was driving him there when he decided to track Neji’s phone – he followed the signal here, where he caught sight of Neji’s hand sticking out the dumpster. He went back to his car, where Tenten made the call,” Kiba imparted, before gesturing over to a parked people-carrier across the street. “He’s still there, if you want to talk to him – not sure you’ll get much out of him, though, he’s still pretty upset.”

“I’ll be sure to talk with him, yes,” Hinata muttered, before backtracking. “Tenten? I’d have thought she would have known what Neji was up to, given that they were partners. When was the last time she saw him?”

Hinata heard footsteps behind her, and someone’s throat clearing. “That would be last night. I rang him at around 8pm, just to make sure he was home okay,” Tenten stated, Hinata looking at her from over her shoulder. “He answered the land-line number, and he seemed okay. A little tired, possibly preoccupied, but he sounded find otherwise. We said goodnight, and that was it.”

Hinata was quiet for a moment, processing information. “…So then, he died at some point between 8pm and 9am, killed somewhere else and dumped here…Tenten, was there anything fishy about this meeting? You said he seemed preoccupied – do you know what about?”

“Not at all. Neji…he’d been really secretive with me lately. Said he was dealing with a lot of things that he didn’t want me getting involved with, but that it was okay and that he was fine on his own.” Tenten shrugged, defeated. “If I were more like Lee, maybe I would be blaming myself for this. But you know Neji – he was a stubborn fool. Even if I’d have insisted on knowing what was up, he wouldn’t have told me.”

“You’re probably right. Thank you, Tenten,” she whispered, her hand resting on Tenten’s elbow, comforting. She let go, and straightened up. “Let me see what else I can find here,” she said, closing her eyes and concentrating hard. She reached out for her internal magical energies, pushing them and forcing them into her eyes, imbuing every layer with magic until she felt something click open, and she was seeing with her eyes closed.

The All-Seeing Eye. With this, nothing physical could escape her sight. A natural, magic-based mutation that ran through her family line, it had been instrumental to her own success as a detective – it was difficult if not impossible for evidence to be hidden from her, especially combined with Kiba and Shino’s tracking abilities. If the crime scene weren’t there, they would find it without doubt. The dumpster itself, his clothing, the road leading to the alleyway – everything was open and vulnerable to her. Her eyes opened, never sure whether to turn to the people she was talking to or to save them from having to look at her veined, pulsing eyes.

“Neji only has his phone and his keys on him, in his pockets – which is strange, if he were killed elsewhere and moved then it would be logical to remove such objects from the body. There are tire tracks on the road that came from a van, that seem to be…six hours old, now? I’ll draw a copy of it, see if we can trace the tire tracks to whoever did the move.” She glanced at Kiba, who had that same awed look on his face that he always did when she used the eye. “Kiba, you use your nose, and Shino can use his bugs – we WILL find the initial crime scene, alright?” She saw Kiba nod resolutely, saw Shino approach and flex his hands expectantly, and she felt their support surround her. As they walked off, determined to carry out her order, she took another deep breath and looked through and into Neji’s body, saying a silent apology in her head, taking note of any irregularities.

“He’s been rained on since he was here, so that narrows the time frame for his death even further. The wounds are definitely too large to be knife wounds, and the angle indicates that it either came up at him through the floor in front of him, or down from the ceiling behind him – either way, he would have seen it coming. He got into a fight with someone, and it was likely that he was in close quarters with them when this happened…” A fight likely involving magic, she thought, something that Neji was no pushover in dealing with. There was no way Neji had been caught off guard, so…

“…Whoever did this was a talented enough mage to get through Neji’s defences. I could count the number of people who could do that on one hand,” she said, her eyes dimming, shifting back to normal.

“Then we already have a small suspect pool,” Tenten said severely.

Hinata nodded, before striding away from the body. “Tenten, is Lee still there? I need to talk to him about this meeting.” Hinata didn’t really need Tenten’s answer, since she could see him in the car, head bent low, tears falling heavily.

Lee flinched when Hinata opened the car door and got in behind the wheel, before relaxing slightly. “Lady Hinata…I am so sorry. You should not be the one dealing with this right now,” he said, his voice cracked from tears.

“…I’ll be alright, Lee. I just want to solve this case as best as I can, catch whoever did this. Will you help me?” she asked, resting a hand on his fist, tense against his leg. He looked up at her, blinking stray tears from his eyes.

“I swear to you, on my life, that I will help you as much as I can. What can I do for you?” he said. Hinata smiled weakly – his eyes held some of that fire he was renowned for. She wasn’t the only one who cared about Neji’s death, and she felt a surge of resolve power through her.

“You can answer some questions, if you can. You were on your way to meet Neji – when and where was this meeting meant to take place?”

“9am, at this dumpling place, only a block or so from his home. I would have been there on time, too, but when I called, he didn’t answer.”

“Tenten mentioned that he’d been secretive lately – did he say anything to you about it?” She’d gotten her notebook out, eyes darting down to check her writing.

“No, not really. Just that whatever it was, it would be a great scoop for me. He said…well, it was odd, but he mentioned that it was the kind of information that could change a lot of the goings-on in the city, for the better, he hoped. Does that help?”

Hinata turned it over for a moment, her smile sweet. “Yes, I think it does. Thank you for the information, Lee, and I’m sorry. I’ll call you if I need you again, alright?”

Opening the door, turning her body to get out, she felt his hand grab her wrist. “Lady Hinata…Neji was strong. Stronger than the both of us. In all my years, I know of only two, perhaps three people who would have had the strength and motive to kill him like this. You know who I am referring to.”

Hinata sighed, her face solemn. “I know.”

“Whatever this was that Neji was involved with, it cost him his life. And if my gut feeling is correct, then the people who did this would have no problem harming you, too. Please, be careful and stay safe.” He let go of her arm, and waved weakly as she walked away.

She stopped walking a good six feet from the car, her hands shaking. Everything she knew so far about his death – secrets that went unrevealed, strong magic, and a body disposal that was well-executed – pointed to the mob, or rather, a select few mob bosses with the magical strength to uphold their places.

“Oh, Neji. What had you gotten yourself into?” she found herself asking. She wondered if she would make it out alive with the answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter (or rather, part 2 of the last chapter). I honestly hope that I haven't given away too many hints here, and that this is any good so far. It's still unbetaed, so if I make any edits, then I apologise still. 
> 
> Hinata's the protagonist because Naruto is, for reasons that will be revealed shortly, unavailable for that spot, and I honestly didn't feel like having a man as the protagonist for this one. I'm finding it tricky balancing out Hinata's shyness with her chosen occupation, although honestly, she's only really shy in-series around Naruto, and she snaps out of that when the situation calls for it. She's quiet, yes, but not this painfully shy around her teammates - plus, she's something like 26 in this fic. If she doesn't seem as shy as she is before, then that's why, although I'm certainly welcome to any feedback over this.


	4. Grasping with Both Hands

Hinata slowly lowered herself into the chair on the other side of Kurenai’s desk, trying to quash the frustration building up inside of her. Kurenai threaded her fingers together, elbows on the desk, and her gaze seemed tired, reluctant.

“Hinata, you know why I’ve called you here,” Kurenai said, seeing clear as day the tension that had collected around Hinata’s shoulders. “You can’t work this case, I’m sorry. Take it from me, even if I let you work this case, you won’t want to be on it by the end.” And just like she was expecting, Hinata took a slow, deep breath, her hands balled into fists in her lap.

She could do this, she’d had worse arguments before. Calm, measured, keep at it. “With all due respect, sir, I would argue that…”

“Please save it. You know as well as I do that a cop who’s too close to the case is always going to argue that they can handle the case regardless, even when they know they can’t. And before you even start,” she added as Hinata took in a breath, as if to interrupt, “if you dare to pull that ‘you just don’t understand’ bullshit with me, then not only are you off the case, but you’ll be suspended.”

Hinata felt anger, so rare in herself, bubble up to her lips. “I understand where you’re coming from, sir, but I insist that you let me continue with this case.” Kurenai sighed, throwing up her hands. “Hinata, I know all about personal cases. When my husband was killed on the job, I wanted nothing more than to go out and catch whoever did it.” She looked down at the table, painfully aware of the photo facing her on the desk. “You know what actually happened, though? I realised I was not the right person for the job and that vengeance would get me nowhere.”

“But that’s just it, sir – I know that I am the right person for the job! If anyone is going to discover what Neji had gotten himself involved with, then surely it would be me?” Hinata protested at last, louder than she’d been in a long time. Kurenai stood up, having to restrain herself from thumping the table.

“And then what? You’ll get yourself killed just like he did?”

Hinata stood too, feeling brave. “No. Neji went into this alone, but I…I have help. I have friends, and we’ll find whoever did this, together. I just…I want to be involved.” Her tone took on something resolute, harder than before. “No, I need to be involved. We can do this, sir, please trust me with that.”

Kurenai glared at her for several moments, running through protocol and personal feeling in her mind. Her shoulders slumped, and Hinata knew then she has won.

“The second it looks like you’re in over your head, I’m pulling you from this case and straight into suspension. Do I make myself clear?”

Relief washed through Hinata’s body, and if things weren’t so serious, she would have smiled.

“Crystal clear, sir. Thank you.”

* * *

Shino leant against the wall as Kiba sat cross-legged on the floor, the magic coming off his skin in gentle tremors. Shino’s fingers twitched, the bugs under his skin buzzing and irritable, and he was surprised that Kiba didn’t so much as flinch as he placed a hand on his shoulder with a heavy thud.

“Kiba, do we really need Akamaru’s help for this one? I would rather we got moving, before the trail gets any colder,” Shino whispered harshly to him, getting a shrug in return.

“You and me both, Shino – but you know I work best with Akamaru. I want to come at this with my best, Hinata wouldn’t expect any less of us.” Shino heard the bizarre clacking sound of dog claws on concrete long before he saw Akamaru bound towards them, Kiba not moving away when the dog licked his face and demanded a fuss.

“Come on, Akamaru, we have work to do,” Kiba grinned. If Shino didn’t know better, it would have felt like he were being ignored, though he’d long come to accept that Akamaru was as intrinsic a part of Kiba’s life, and even his body, as his own insects were. Kiba closed his eyes, and just like every time he did this, he seemed to bristle, as if his features and limbs were being sharpened somehow. Akamaru seemed to do the inverse, blunting himself, straightening out and becoming aware of the world in a way that he wasn’t before.

Unlike the last time Shino had seen this, Kiba growled, flexing his hands, watching with delight as his nails turned into claws of his own. Shino noted the harsh rise and fall of Kiba’s chest, the sharpness of his teeth, bared by a feral grin, and he was unable to quell the surge of worry.

“Kiba, are you feeling alright?” Shino asked, and Kiba laughed, low and savage.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Haven’t done this in a long time, though…” he noted, his and Akamaru’s heads tilting upward. They both sniffed, eyes dark and clouded, and Shino almost missed it when he said, softly, “the air just reeks of his blood, right, Akamaru?”

Shino didn’t get a chance to ask again if he were really okay as they both bounced up, a newfound energy in them. “We got a trail, a strong one, from the blood and the rubber tires. Wanna try it with your bugs, too?”

Shino nodded, sending his thoughts out to his bugs and feeling the sting and itch on his body as they chewed their way up through to the surface. They took to the air, tasting it, searching for the residue of magic, before flying back and communicating the information back to him.

“Yes, I can sense it too. Two people, Neji and someone else – if it isn’t the murderer, then who is it? The person who disposed of the body, most likely.” He shivered, feeling a hunger for energy that wasn’t his own. “Lead the way, Kiba – if we can find the scene of the crime, then I can find out if multiple people were involved, and where to go next.”

Kiba grinned, and Akamaru bared his teeth in an expression that might be an imitation of his master’s. “After you, then.”

* * *

Contrary to what Hinata always overheard the rookies saying amongst themselves, the morgue was bright and, while cool, rarely dipped into a temperature that she found to be freezing. After the long day she’d had so far, there was something almost pleasant about it, the chill settling in on the back of her neck.

She was greeted there with a hug and a sympathetic smile, an apology that could never be forced. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Hinata – you know I’m here for you, if you need me, right?” Sakura said, her voice low and sympathetic.

“Thank you – I’ll let you know, okay?” she replied, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. Sakura took hold of her hands anyway, warm like the spring days she was named for.

“Well, Ino and I make a habit of going out each month – maybe you can join us sometime? Whenever you feel ready for it, of course,” Sakura offered, and it was moments like this that made Hinata remember just why everyone loved her so much.

“Last time I went out with you and Ino…she kind of…well, she sort of told me all about your sex life together and threw up on my shoes.”

“Ah yes, I remember that,” Sakura said, grinning from ear to ear. “Good times, good times. I’d like to say that she’s calmed down since then, but hey, I’m just glad she hasn’t gotten arrested yet.” Hinata laughed, her hand covering her mouth on impulse. “Well, I’m sure that if she is, she knows plenty of good lawyers.”

They both laughed at that, not stopping for several minutes – every time they tried, one of them would giggle again, setting it off once more. There was something sweet about this, Hinata thought, something normal enough that she could almost pretend this was just an ordinary case. She grabbed at that feeling with both hands, holding it close for as long as she could.

Eventually, that feeling left them, and reality set in for the both of them. Sakura straightened up, her face turning severe, and Hinata nodded and gestured. “You should…probably tell me what you’ve found.”

“…Alright, just…alright.” Sakura picked up her clipboard of notes, barely looking at them as she went on. “The cause of death, rather obviously, is severe trauma to the major organs in the chest, combined with rapid loss of blood, and as likely as it was that the killer was a mage – and a good one at that – the wounds don’t necessarily lend themselves to that idea,” she said, all business now. “He was impaled, and while the diameter of the wounds is too big for the weapon to be a knife, the shape of them suggests a stake of some kind.”

“So, it’s possible that he was just stabbed …” Hinata murmured to herself – saying it aloud didn’t allow it to make more sense to her. Hinata had tried incorporating a knife into their sparring sessions before, and every time, it would be out of her hand and stuck in the walls or floor before it could come within a foot of him.

“Right. Having said that, Neji was a powerful martial artist, and the weapon penetrated his torso deep enough to leave exit wounds in his back – if a conventional weapon was used, then someone had to overpower him and stab him with an incredible amount of force,” Sakura explained, honestly looking puzzled. “If that is how this happened – which it might have been, I’m not ruling it out – then the killer would have been impossibly strong, and skilled enough to fight Neji in a face-to-face stand-off.”

Hinata caught Sakura’s eye, and it was as if a shared understanding fell between them, a singular name flashing in the forefront of Hinata’s thoughts. Sakura frowned and looked away far too quickly. “Although, the toxicology report isn’t back yet – he could have been drugged, which would have made something like that easier to accomplish.”

Of all the things to hope for when investigating a relative’s murder, this didn’t feel like it should have been one of them. Sakura flicked through her notes and settled on a specific page.

“The time of death was around 2am, and having looked at the weather reports, it rained for an hour starting at 3:15, so your timeframe for the move is in that window. That should help you get a hold of any CCTV footage.”

“Right,” Hinata sighed, “We pulled CCTV footage from the streets leading up to the spot where Neji was found…if we could find the actual crime scene, then we’ll have a lot more to go on.” She turned to walk away, before thinking better of it, holding out her hand for Sakura to shake. “Thank you for this – I know it can’t have been easy, working on a friend.”

“Same for you, Hinata – just look after yourself, okay? Promise me that,” Sakura insisted, again taking hold of Hinata’s hand.

Hinata knew perfectly well that her evening would involve not eating and sleeping at 4am, after examining the evidence so thoroughly that she could remember it by heart.

“I promise,” she said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.

* * *

“So, what do you think we’re going to find?” Shino asked as they weaved through the late morning foot traffic. “I can’t imagine that they would have left the crime scene the way it was, having taken the time to move the body.”

Kiba and Akamaru stopped, sniffing the air again in unison, before correcting their course. Shino had to break into a light jog to keep up with them, excusing himself to people he bumped into. “There’s gotta be something there – a scent, some blood, the weapon, something. You can clean a crime scene, but there’s always something that ya miss,” Kiba shouted over his shoulder, stopping again to let Shino catch up. “Also, why ‘they’? We don’t know if it was more than one guy.” 

“They can be used as a singular pronoun, and for all we know, there could have been multiple people involved – do you smell more than one person?” 

Kiba looked at Akamaru, and if the dog could have shrugged, he would have. “Not yet, but we might do when we get there.” Shino nodded, and for a while, they all remained quiet, following what their senses were telling them. 

After several long minutes, Kiba cleared his throat. They had made their way through the crowds, into a quieter segment of the city – the pavements had faded in favour of warehouses and workshops, the distant sounds of backbreaking work on an even volume as Kiba’s words as he said, uncharacteristically soft, “I’m worried about Hinata.” 

Shino would have scoffed at him, if Kiba hadn’t been so serious. “Don’t be. She’s tough, you know that as well as I do.” At once, Kiba clenched his fists, and Akamaru whined, long and high-pitched. 

“Yeah, but you know as well as I do that Neji was more like her brother than her cousin! And Hinata’s that kind of person who doesn’t let on when she’s feeling sad, so she’ll make us think she’s okay when she really isn’t, and next thing we know she’s calling us at 3am sobbing and ranting about how she regrets not getting him a better present last Christmas.” 

“…Even when you’re trying to be sensitive and considerate to other people’s feelings, you end up being a dick. It’s amazing, really.” 

Kiba snorted and rolled his eyes. “Ah, you know what I mean. I just…it’s selfish, I know, and I know she can handle this by herself, I just…I want to help her. But I can’t.” Kiba’s hands rested on Akamaru’s head, petting him absentmindedly. “I’m useless to her right now.” 

“I don’t know about that,” Shino said, finding Kiba’s free hand and grasping it tightly. “I think she can find her own uses for you, in the coming months. Just be there, and it will be impossible for you to be useless.” He gave Kiba’s hand a quick squeeze, before letting go and putting both hands in his pockets. “For now, we can help her get this case sorted. Am I wrong?” 

Kiba grinned, his whole face lighting up. “Are you kidding? Smart-asses like you are never wrong.” He stopped, inhaled deeply, and his smile widened. “And our crime scene is right over there.” 

They’d wandered into an industrial complex, empty and echoing – even in daylight, there were shadows around every corner, the buildings towering and menacing. One in particular, at the back near the fenced borders, carried the thick smell of blood. The three of them pulled open the front door and made their way inside, magic at the ready. 

That it was as abandoned and empty on the inside as the outside had suggested was a major problem. 

“Well, the bloody smell comes from here and leads outside, but…” Kiba said, gesturing to the floor with a shrug, “I might have to steal a line from Hinata and say that you don’t need the all-seeing eye to see that there’s nothing here.” 

Shino raised an eyebrow at him. “And here I thought that there’s always something that was missed?” he said, insects swarming out from beneath his sleeves. They soon covered the floors and the walls, and he crossed his arms, smiling. “It might take them a while, but they can figure out whether magic was used here, and what kind. You smell anyone new?” 

“…Actually, I do, but I don’t know them, and I’m not sure if I can get a trail on them from here – they did a damn good job making it seem like nothing happened here. That makes…one person committing the murder, and someone else called in to dispose of the body?” 

“Right. And that works out well for our killer – gives them time to clean up after themselves. And something I can detect right away is that the magical field here is pretty strong – it’s unlikely that any technology would work around here. Even if there is a CCTV camera here, we don’t have any film.” 

They looked over at each other, quiet for a long moment. Akamaru finished his rounds of the building, whining and pawing at the floor. 

“So,” Shino said, reluctantly, “does this mean we have nothing?” 

Kiba nodded, his hands curling into fists again. “We got nothing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fucking hated writing this chapter. Nothing that I considered interesting happened, nothing I had planned happened here, and I felt like it's the one that uses the most detective mystery clichés (the whole "I'm taking you out of the case, you're too close to this!" conversation that Hinata has to have at the start - then again, it would have been a bit of a plothole if no one had that conversation with her, so it feels like a necessary evil). It's much longer than the first two chapters, and at that point, I've resigned myself to these chapters being longer than 2000 words each. 
> 
> That does, however, make this the longest singular fanfic that I've ever written, so that's cool. 
> 
> (and yes, Kiba/Shino and Sakura/Ino are ships in this fic. Just in case I wasn't clear enough on that.)


	5. Saturday Night

“Please tell me you have some good news.”

It was the first thing Hinata had said to anyone the next morning, her eyes rimmed red and hazy. What they had so far could be counted on one hand – the location of the crime scene, how the murder was committed, and what time it took place. She’d tried to tell herself that this was enough of a basis for more evidence, that they still had a small pool of possible suspects, but at that moment, things weren’t looking good.

“Well, we got a couple of things that might interest you,” Kiba said, grinning for once. He handed her a thermos of a hot drink, and she smiled around the rim of it as she drank – a chai latte, possibly made from scratch. It coated her tongue and sank down into her empty stomach, warming her inside and out.

“Did you…make this yourself?” she asked, surprised.

“Well…I wake up early, and I thought maybe you could use something nice, after yesterday,” he mumbled. She smiled, choosing not to comment on how his face reddened.

“…Okay, that’s…I’m marginally less miserable now. Keep talking,” she added, sipping her drink delicately.

He sat opposite her at her desk, his nerves eased somewhat. “Well, turns out that the location itself is a pretty big clue to who did it – think you’ll find it pretty interesting.”

Hinata raised an eyebrow, gesturing him to spill the beans. He chuckled at that, before presenting his trump card in the form of an old case file. “Turns out that that warehouse in particular is a well-known meet-up spot for gang members, and it’s been the spot for at least one attempted murder case in the past. Take a look,” he said, handing the file to her.

She flicked through it, her eyebrows furrowing, a hand moving to cover her mouth. “…This is…this is when Lee…”

“Yeah…it’s the same place Rock Lee was found in after he’d been tortured by Gaara of the Sand. Neji was able to swoop in and save the day back then…” Kiba said, taking the file back and tucking it under his arm.

“…But when the tables were turned, no one was there to save Neji…” Hinata muttered to herself, eyes cast down. “I never found out much about whatever cases Neji was running, but I do know that he was like a dog with a bone over this one.”

Kiba glared at her for a moment, and she smiled sweetly. “Aww, you understand what I mean.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “He never stopped investigating Lee’s case, is what you’re saying.”

“Yes. He would leave it for a while, but every now and then, he’d tell me that he was on the trail again, and that he’d find the evidence he needed to put Gaara away for it. He was so indignant over the whole thing, and he just…he never let it go.”

Kiba nodded, contemplative. “Can’t really blame him for that. His partner gets put through the ringer by a gang leader, becoming both a rescuer and a witness – and there wasn’t enough evidence to get a trial, or even find where he was hiding out? Bullshit, man,” he said, thinking it over. “You think Gaara could be our guy? I mean, it sounds nice an’ all, but we need more proof than this.”

Hinata’s hand stroked her chin, eyes narrowed. “Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Neji goes out, does some looking around for evidence, Gaara finds out and they have a confrontation. The rumour is that Gaara’s magical defences are impenetrable – if that’s the case, then it’s entirely possible for Neji to have lost against him…and he would certainly have the resources to contact someone and have them dispose of the body. On top of that, he has magic relating to the manipulation of sand, so it’s possible that he could have impaled Neji with it, which is why we couldn’t find the murder weapon on the scene – he carries it with him.”

“That’s a lot more likely a story than you might think,” Shino chimed in, striding in, papers in hand. “I spent a lot of last night looking through as many CCTV cameras as I could, near both the initial crime scene and the site where Neji’s body was, and while it’s difficult to see a driver, we matched the description of the van to other crimes connected to the sand family. It’s likely that he brought a goon with him and got them to dispose of the body.”

Hinata smiled, but only for a moment, her face falling again right away. “That’s great…but we can’t just wander in blindly here. We need to find a way to interrogate Gaara personally, but his reputation makes me think that he'd rather kill us than talk, and he's notoriously hard to locate...we need to organise it without raising the alarm and putting ourselves in danger. But how?”

Kiba shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Well, I think I know a way,” he started. Shino huffed, shook his head, and left the room, grumbling to himself as he went. Hinata watched him go, her brow furrowed, and she looked back over at Kiba, her mouth hanging open slightly.

He sighed, resting his forehead on his palm. “I kind of…sort of used to date Gaara’s brother, alright?” he confessed, his eyes peeking at her from between his fingers – her face had morphed into a frozen mask of shock and distaste. “It’s okay, it was a while ago, what we had is long gone and…”

“Kiba…” she said, bringing up her hands and getting them to work massaging her temples.

“…Alright, so maybe I kind of still go for drinks with him every once in a while so we can shoot the shit. As friends, mind,” he hastily added.

“Kiba, what part of ‘catching up with gangster ex-boyfriends’ sounds okay to you?” she ground out.

“Hey, he isn’t a gangster! I think you’ll find that he’s invested a lot of time and effort into not getting involved in his siblings bullshit!”

“Please for the love of God, _get to the point_.”

“Alright, alright,” he said, hands held up in mock surrender. “All I’m saying is that I’m pretty sure he could organise a meeting with his brother, or at least pass on a message, if I were to go to him and ask him nicely.”

“Well, that sounds…surprisingly easy. You know where to find him?”

“Sure. It’s a Saturday – only one place he can be,” Kiba said, grinning suavely. “You doing anything tonight, beautiful?”

* * *

“You didn’t have to hit me so hard earlier, you know,” Kiba grumbled as Hinata opened her front door, and she didn’t miss the way he froze, his eyes travelling up and down her figure.

“Well…I mean, honestly, Kiba,” she sputtered, hands flapping, trying to figure out which parts of herself she needed to cover up. He’d told her to go classy, ‘but not too classy, ya feel?’, so she’d gone for the red silk dress that she’d been given as a present – beautifully made, with a gorgeous pattern, in a colour that she rarely had the guts to wear and with much less material than she was used to. She’d been told that it would be good for any hen night parties that she would find herself invited to. “…How do I look?” she asked, meekly.

He smiled, more gentle than before. “Amazing. Where we’re going, it’s just the sort of thing that’d be appreciated. You’d fit in just fine,” he said, taking hold of the door and opening it wide enough to let her through. She wobbled over to the car, not used to the heels, and she thanked herself for taking Sakura’s advice and packing a spare pair of shoes.

The car journey there – not in a patrol or work car, but in Kiba’s own pathetic, beaten up old Cadillac – was spent largely in an uncomfortable silence. She watched Kiba out of the corner of her eye, taking in how his military-style jacket pressed flat against him, visibly growing tighter with his breathing, and her face felt hot. She felt herself flush even brighter when she caught him glancing over at her, something curious and almost hungry in his eyes. She thought about what Shino had said to her the morning before, and for a moment, she didn’t think it would be all that bad a thing to consider. She opened her mouth to speak just as the car pulled to a stop.

They were just outside the club, Kiba rushing to get out and open Hinata’s door for her, and she shook her head at him, smiling. It didn’t seem much like the kind of place that required that kind of good treatment, if she were honest in her assessment.

The Red Sand was only noticeable as a club that was in use because of the music filtering from under the front door. The sign was subtle, hidden beneath the glare of the neon-lit shops flanking it, the entrance obscured in shadows, and Hinata would never have noticed it if it weren’t for Kiba dramatically sweeping his arm. Kiba’s nose crinkled in distaste as she nudged the door open, not necessarily from the smell itself and more from the intensity of it. Wood varnish, cigar smoke and spilled drinks – he noticed her look of concern, smiled shakily. “Smells like a fun time, is all,” he said, scanning the room for a seat with a view of the stage and striding towards it with confidence. She trotted in behind him, feeling people’s stares. Should have brought a coat, she thought, shivering under the heat of stranger’s gazes (and the lack of heating, she noted, hands rubbing at her arms).

Sitting down, squirming at the feel of cold wood on the backs of her thighs, Hinata looked around – there were more people there than she would have guessed from the outside, a low whisper of sound barely audible above the music. Nothing exceptional.

“So where’s our host?” she asked, raising her voice just loud enough for him to hear her. He shifted his chair around to be seated directly next to her, leaning in close enough for her breath to tickle his ear, and she felt the sudden warmth radiate from his skin. He grinned at her and pointed to the stage.

It was readily apparent which of the men on stage was Kankuro of the desert, if only because Hinata wasn’t sure that any of the other band members were human at all – his face, painted at it was and obscured somewhat by the black fedora, was alive and emotive, a direct contrast to the other men, whose only movements were in playing the instruments. Glancing at Kiba questioningly, she thought it best to check, the all-seeing eye flickering into place – all she saw was him and his life force, spread equally around the stage. That he could control all of the marionettes at once really was incredible, she thought, and Kiba’s eyes shone with something – pride? Nostalgia? She switched off her magic, the subtle changes in Kiba’s face striking her as indecent to see.

Kankuro was singing about Saturday nights, moving between a velvet baritone and a smooth tenor without a hitch, only his eyes registering that he’d spotted them near the front. Kiba waved cheerfully, something Kankuro acknowledged with merely a grin. A good five minutes after the song ended and he took his bows, he pulled a spare chair towards their table and sat down, still radiant from performing.

“Well, well, look who it is,” he said, eyes sharp and fixed on Kiba. “I was beginning to think that that husband of yours had followed through on his word and banned you from coming here. Which is a shame – we finally made Temari’s usual order into a named cocktail,” he joked. “Absinthe and vodka, knocks most people out like a light – you want to try it?”

Kiba laughed, leaning forward across the table. “I’d prefer to remember this conversation later, thanks for the offer. And it ain’t my husband that’s stopping me from coming here – it’s my job. That, and the ‘No Dogs Allowed’ sign up front, I’d love to bring Akamaru in here some time. No one else has a say in where I can and can’t go,” he said, grinning.

“Well, ain’t that the truth,” Kankuro said, ruefully. He finally glanced over to Hinata, watching her as if assessing a painting. His face split into a grin, slick with a greasy sort of charm. “And you must be Hinata Hyuuga. Last couple of times he’s been here, Kiba was pretty liberal with his praise.”

Such a carefully worded compliment, she thought, a shiver running up her spine. “…I would like to think that I’m deserving of them, thank you,” she replied, seeing his smile deepen. There was a game being played here, that much was obvious.

“Well, your name carries a degree of renown around these parts…but that’s none of my business…” he airily noted, and he was grinning from ear to ear, seeing her take a deep breath. A test, she figured, although she wasn’t sure if it were of her nerves or her wit, or perhaps both.

She went with both, setting her chin and looking down at him. “I hope you don’t mind if I make it your business,” she firmly said, reaching a hand into her bag and holding the sides of the papers between her fingers. “Because there’s a certain kind of gossip that needs to be heard by certain ears, if you understand my meaning.”

“Oh, is that right?” Kankuro asked, raising his eyebrow and twisting his mouth into mock surprise. His eyes flickered between her and Kiba, almost questioning. “…Well, I must say, I’m hurt that you, Kiba, would put her up to something like this.”

“I didn’t – come on, Kankuro, I know it’s a dick move…” Kiba spluttered, and the look Kankuro fixed him bordered on ugly.

“You got that right – friend or not, don’t think for a moment that I appreciate what you’re trying to do.” The two men fixed each other with a glare, and Hinata couldn’t help but notice something almost sad pass between them. The moment passed, and Kankuro’s smile slotted straight back into place, mocking. “I’m not a messenger boy, kids, and I have nothing to do with whatever misdeeds you think my brother’s been involved in.” He pushed himself away from the table, steadying himself to stand.

Gotcha, she thought, smiling pleasantly. “It’s funny you should say that,” she said, bluffing, “because I’m fairly certain that it’s one of your vans that was used to move my cousin’s body.” He froze, fixing her with a glare that could peel paint, sitting back down. Kiba had turned to her, wide eyed and wavering between impressed and hurt. This was news to him, as it should have been, and she could almost feel the sense of betrayal between them now.

“…Colour me interested,” Kankuro said, brow furrowed, his grin missing and leaving something close to anger in its place.

“A black van with ‘The Scorpion’ proudly stencilled on the side,” she continued, removing the first picture and placing it on the table between them. “I mean, it’s clever, using a company van to carry out illegal activity – and better still, the club’s gone through a name change since then, hasn’t it? Harder to place a restaurant that technically doesn’t exist anymore. Even if you personally aren’t involved, I’m sure you’re the sort that would do your brother a favour every now and then, lend him a van or two in a pinch. Am I right?”

He examined the photo carefully before staring at her, the paint widening his frown, not even covering up the fact that he was judging her. He eventually smiled, smug this time. “Well, that’s an interesting way of seeing things. I’m curious, though, why this is something my brother should even care about,” he said, his low enough to not be overheard. “So, spill it – what kind of trouble are you accusing Gaara of getting into?”

She pulled out the second photograph, covering the first with it on the table. He stared at it for several long seconds, before glancing between her face, set in a determined glare, and the photo of Neji’s bloodied corpse. Slowly, as if it were just sinking in, he grinned, and then laughed, the sound a curious mix of good nature and malice. The patrons of other tables glanced over, before shrugging and going back to their own business.

“And Kiba told me you were shy!” he gasped in between giggles. “You – you’re gutsier than you look. I like that.”

“I think you’ll find that I’m only shy around people whose opinion I actually give a shit about,” she deadpanned, keeping herself in check. “Not to be rude, but you’re completely gutless, and I don’t like that.”

Kankuro collected himself, still grinning. “You know, it’s funny…that’s not the first time I’ve heard something like that. I wonder where I’ve heard that before…?”

She bristled at that, knuckles white. “I don’t care for either your nostalgia or your tone,” she ground out, pushing the photo further across the table. “Now, you had better commit this photograph to memory here, and you had better hope that your brother had nothing to do with this. Well?”

Kankuro said nothing, looking back at the photo of Neji, carefully studying it. “...Don’t know if you’d know about this, but he was here about a week ago,” he said, distantly. “Just like you are now, shoving photos at me and asking questions. No murders, but…he was asking about a regular patron here. I couldn’t help him out much, though.”

“He was asking about…? Who was it?” Kiba chipped in, leaning forward with interest.

“Hell if I know, some guy.” Kankuro said, hand on his chin. “Tall, dark hair and eyes, freakishly pale and handsome. I never had any trouble with the guy – only remarkable thing about him was how cute he was, and that while he usually had people approach him to talk, he’d always arrive and leave by himself.” He shrugged, sharing a confused look with the detectives. “This guy in the photo – it’s Neji Hyuuga, right? I just figured he was working on a case or something.”

“That’s…that can be really helpful to us, thanks,” Kiba said, smiling. Kankuro lowered his hat further over his eyes, avoiding eye contact.

“Well, I think that’s the extent of my usefulness,” he mumbled, almost inaudible above the general chatter of the bar. He paused, as if to collect himself, before smiling again, as pleasantly as he did when he first approached them. “Now, I can sit here for the next several hours outlining why Gaara’s innocent and why myself and my company don’t have anything to do with your cousin’s death…but hell, why not let Gaara do it himself? I’ll talk to him, see what I can do.”

Kankuro stood, Kiba following shortly behind – he shuffled awkwardly for a moment, before holding his hand out.

“Thank you – this case means a lot to so many people, and it’s…well, I’m glad you could help out,” he said, seeming almost shy. Like he’d turned back into a teenager, Hinata thought wryly – all he had to do to complete the picture was twirl his fingers.

“Sure thing, kid – just call in advance next time you try shit like this, ‘kay?” Kankuro replied, shaking Kiba’s hand briefly. His hand returned to his pockets this time, and he turned to Hinata, shit-eating grin in place. “Sadly, I must depart – do your best to look after the mutt, alright?” His hand went up and tipped his hat. “Until we meet again…”

If he could have bowed without looking foolish, she thought, he would have. Instead, he gave them a mock salute, turned from then and strode behind the stage curtains, disappearing from sight. Kiba sighed, and he in turn walked to the door.

Nostalgia’s a bitch, Hinata concluded, trailing out after him.

* * *

The drive back to her apartment was set to be just as silent as the way there, except the previous mood was gone entirely, replaced with a solemnity Hinata wasn’t used to seeing in her partner. Eventually, Kiba cleared his throat, and glanced at her again, strangely awkward. “Hinata, I…well, I knew he was going to try and test you somehow, so I’m sorry if…you know, if you were uncomfortable or anything.”

“Oh…well, it’s okay. I mean, he was…aggravating…but we got what we wanted, so I’m happy,” she replied, watching street lights pass her window, amber streaks in the blackness. She saw him nod from the corner of her eye, watching her for a moment.

“Well, that depends. He’s on good terms with his brother now, but we’re still asking a lot of him.”

“…This Kankuro person…he still means something to you?” she asked. As if she needed to – she’d seen how he’d been acting all evening, nervous and close to wanting. If he hadn’t asked her about being their third, she would have pinned it down purely to past feelings resurfacing and not thought anything more of it – as much as she hated the thought, she was worried down to her core that there was something he wasn’t discussing.

Kiba snorted from amusement. “Well, yeah, course he does. You don’t go through the things we did without wanting to keep some kind of contact, you know?”

“…I suppose I do…so what happened? I mean, if you’re…if you want to tell me.”

He was quiet for a long while, then, chewing on his lip and staring out at the road. “What’s to tell?” he said, finally. “We were both brats who were headed for a lifetime of trouble if someone didn’t put us in the right direction. We both had parents and siblings who were varying degrees of absent or awful, he was a punk who got no respect, and me…I was a wreck.”

He admitted it in a small voice, and she followed his gaze, not to the road like she had thought, but to the scar on his hand. It was silver and curved like a crescent moon, a matching reflection on his palm as well, conveniently the same size as the row of fangs that he sprouted whenever he accessed the more animal side of his psyche. She'd seen him with short sleeves before - she knew there were others like it scattered across his body. “I was a self-destructive little shit back then. Compared to me, he was…he was my rock, for a time. Said himself that he’d rot with me, if need be. And I guess I thought that if I was going down, then at least there was someone willing to go down with me.” He chuckled darkly, shaking his head. “But that really was a long time ago.”

“…If you’re so eager to find a third…why not go for him? He sounds like he’d be a better choice for that,” she mumbled. He snapped out of his sadness and shot her a wide-eyed look.

“What? Aw man, you got it all wrong!” he exclaimed, his face a fun mix of shock and distaste. “It’s not like we’re desperate for a third person – we asked you because…well, we thought it could work out, and we wanted to give it a chance.” He confessed it, his face turning red, and she could see him try in vain to will the blush away, his hand gripping the steering wheel like he wanted to rip it out.

“You…you really think it could?” she said, her hand coming up to rest on his, gentle and encouraging.

“…Well, we both really like you, not that we show it so much. We do. You’d stop us from killing each other, at least,” he joked, coaxing a grin out of the both of them. Her thumb stroked along the backs of his knuckles, and he went quiet for a moment, smiling contentedly.

“…And besides,” he continued, “if we were just choosing a third person for the hell of it, it couldn’t be Kankuro. Shino hates his guts. That, and…again, what I had with Kankuro was a long time ago, and going back to that…I can’t think of a bigger mistake.”

She giggled, and he let a laugh seethe through his teeth. “That bad, huh?”

“Oh yeah. He can be great sometimes, but he’s kind of a dick too. Not that Shino isn’t kind of a dick either…” he noted, pulling up outside her apartment. She got out and hobbled to the drivers side door, leaning down to hear him as he wound the window down.

“See you at work tomorrow? I’m willing to pick you up, if you want,” Kiba offered, and she shook her head.

“I can get there myself, thank you,” she said, feeling in the air something different and warm. Before she could think better of it, she said quickly, “And you know, I am thinking about it, about you and Shino, I am, just that I have a lot of other things on my mind right now and…”

“Say no more. Just…” Just that you’re the least dickish person I’ve ever loved, he wanted to say, but didn’t. “Just take care of yourself, okay? We can talk about it when you’re ready. Sleep well, Hinata.”

He waited for her to make her way to the front door of her apartment before he drove off, kicking himself as he went: she watched him go, the summer night chilling her as she stood there, only going through the door and to the lift when she couldn’t see his car anymore.

Her bed felt just a little warmer that night, just a little less lonely, a little closer to normal than it had been the night before. She thought about squeezing into bed between two solid, sleeping figures, and getting some grumbled complaints and maybe even a kick to the shins as a reward, and she figured that maybe it really wasn’t such a bad thing to consider after all.

Not now, she thought to herself, never now. But some day…maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the most fun writing this chapter, but WOW I wasn't expecting it to be this LONG.
> 
> I feel like this chapter IS relevant, even though not much case-solving actually happens in it. I feel like showing how Hinata works with suspects/witnesses who are terrible people in a relaxed setting, before showing her do it in the safety of her precinct interrogation room, and I wanted a part of the story where the romantic sub-plot could take the centre stage (before the plot goes further into the mystery - it won't crop up too much, I swear). I feel like this chapter is less cliche, but it has more of a noir feel to it anyway, though that's just me. I'm hoping that the things I tried setting up in this chapter pay off later, I really am.
> 
> Kankuro's one of my favourite characters in the series, so I'm hoping that I've done him justice - and I'm also hoping that I'm writing Hinata and Kiba well enough, too. I mean, yeah, I know this chapter is really long in comparison to the others, but I really am hoping that it's entertaining enough to hold your attention.
> 
> A lot of the details in this chapter are big references to Steam Powered Giraffe, up to and including the chapter title - their music reminds me of Kankuro, so it was a given that I had their songs on repeat while writing this one.
> 
> Kiba's car is a 1982 Cadillac Cimarron. I know nothing about cars, but I hear that it wasn't a very good car to begin with, let alone 22 years later.


End file.
